"Girls Gone Wild" founder pays $500,000 fine in underage girl case

Joe Francis, the 33 year old founder of multi-million dollar company "Girls Gone Wild" is back in court. This is nothing new for Francis who is routinely sued by girls that are shown in his television show that feel they were either tricked into performing lewd acts or too drunk to make good decisions about their actions. The lawsuits normally fall flat and Francis is able to jump on one of his private jets and carry on with his life.

But this time, when the gavel fell, he found himself $500,000.00 poorer.

Francis was fined $500K for violating rules designed to prevent exploitation of minors. He was also got 200 hours of community service and two years' probation as part of the plea agreement.

Francis admitted that in 2002 he shot and included footage of two underage females for the "Ultimate Spring Break" series and did so without having legible documentation of their ages, which is illegal. Both girls were 17 years old at the time.